A few months ago a company called Goodbye Detergent! sent me some eco-friendly sponges and scrubbers. Their packaging encouraged you to use them without soap. Get that? No soap. Also, these wundersponges boasted about being made from things like peach pits and corn cobs. I silently scoffed under my breath and mumbled something about hippies.

A week later, I ate every last sarcastic word and am now singing their praises. You guys HAVE to try these!

How I Tested These Scrubbers

Product recommendations aren't something we take lightly here at The Kitchn. Quite often we throw our daily worst at items as we test them. Maybe we forgot to deglaze a pan when the phone rang or we made marshmallows and the sugar pan has seen better days.

Those are our typical avenues of testing, but in the name of science, I took one for the team and went to a whole new level. And by a whole new level, I mean I house sat for someone and forgot to do my dishes before I left — gasp!

How They Work

Here's how these "spaghetti scrubbers" ($10) look straight out of the package. Although these long ropes look like they'd have a better chance winning a towel whipping competition than a caked-on food challenge, it's exactly the opposite (we assume, anyway; I didn't try the whipping side of things).

These bad boys scuff away the bad gunk without any soap (if you so desire) and leave things clean and ready for action again in seconds.

When I'm through using them I give them a quick rinse and let them hang over my faucet to dry.

One scrubby-thingy lasted through over a month of regular washing and put my soap usage back to almost nothing. I still use detergent on things that are extra icky like onion juice that might leave an odor behind, but just traditional gunk — no soap needed!

My favorite piece is this small black heavy duty cleaning pad ($9.95). You will pry it from my cold dead hands. No seriously —cold. dead. hands. It made pots that would normally need to be soaked for a few hours come clean in seconds and zero elbow grease.

I told anyone who would listen for weeks about my new sponges. My friends probably thought I was crazy, but folks, these are a dishwashing game changer.

The best part is they look cute; they've replaced all of my other sponges and I only keep a bottle brush around to clean out my water bottle. Peace of sink is peace of mind!